J-Speaks: Eagles Fly To First Super Bowl

The New England Patriots, led by quarterback Tom Brady and head coach Bill Belichick won Super Bowl XXXIX 24-21 over the Philadelphia Eagles to win their third of five Super Bowl titles. Fast forward almost 13 years to day later the same American Football Conference (AFC) and National Football Conference representatives met again. Even with the head coach/quarterback combination, that will be in the Hall of Fame on the first ballot, it was the Eagles, led by a backup quarterback, and his aggressive play calling head coach that shocked the world. 

Led by the Nick Foles, the Eagles defeated the Pats in Super Bowl LII 41-33 to win their first Vince Lombardi Trophy in franchise history. They captured the city of Philadelphia’s first pro sports championship since the Phillies won the 2008 World Series. The Eagles captured their four title since winning the 1960 NFL championship. 

“If there is word called everything, that’s what it means to Eagles fans everywhere. Everywhere,” longtime Chairman and CEO of the Eagles Jeffery Lurie said to NBC’s Dan Patrick during the Vince Lombardi Trophy ceremony. “For Eagles fans everywhere, this is for them. This is for them.”

Foles, the MVP of Super Bowl LII was sensational going 28 for 43 passing for 373 yards, three touchdowns, and just one interception.

“I felt calm,” Foles, who shared his moment with his daughter Lilly, like Saints QB Drew Brees a few years back said to Patrick. “We have such a great group of guys. Such a great coaching staff. We felt confident coming in and we just went out there and played football.” 

“We’ve played this game since we were little kids. We’ve dreamed about this moment. There’s plenty of kids watching this game right now dreaming about this moment, and someday will be here. And to be here with my daughter, my wife, my family, my teammates, this city were blessed.” 

The Eagles receiving core was incredible with rookie running back Corey Clement recording four receptions for 100 yards, and a touchdown; wideout Nelson Agholor had nine catches for 84 yards; tight end Zach Ertz had seven receptions for 67 yards, including the eventual game-winning 11-yard score with 2:21 left in the contest; Alshon Jeffery had three catches for 73 yards, and a touchdown; and Torrey Smith had five receptions for 49 yards.

Running back LeGarrette Blount, who helped the Patriots to win Super Bowl LI 34-28 in an epic comeback over the Falcons last season had 14 carries for 90 yards, and a touchdown, while his backup Jay Ajayi, who was acquired from the Miami Dolphins earlier in the regular season had nine rushes for 57 yards.

“God had a plan. I prayed for a change in my career for success, and positive things to happen. God placed me on the Eagles, and here I am today as a Super Bowl champion,” Ajayi, who helped the Eagles become the eighth team to score 40-plus point in the Super Bowl said to NBC’s Paul Burmeister, Tony Dungy, and Rodney Harrison after the game. 

“There are no real words to kind of describe everything that happened this year, but this is so special, and I’m so grateful to be hear.” 

The Eagles compiled 538 yards of total offense; went 10 for 16 on third down, including 2 for 2 on fourth down; registered 164 yards rushing; and compiled 25 first downs. 

The Eagles, who only punted once in the entire game needed every yard they could muster because their defense for much of the game was unable to stop the Pats as they registered 613 yards of total offense; had 113 yards rushing, with running back James White compiling 45 of those yards, with a touchdown; and were 5 for 10 on third down themselves. Brady was magnificent going 28 for 48 passing for 505 yards, breaking his own Super Bowl record of 466 set in last season’s Super Bowl and three touchdowns. 

A bulk of those 505 yards came from wide receiver Danny Amendola, who had eight receptions for 152 yards; fellow wideout Chris Hogan had six catches for 128 yards and a touchdown; and tight end Rob Gronkowski, who was cleared to play after going through the concussion protocol had nine receptions for 116 yards and two touchdowns. 

To put into perspective how great these two offenses were on Super Sunday, they set an NFL playoff record, as well as the all-time mark of 1,151 combined total yards. 

Like most games of this magnitude, it came down to a few plays that went in the way of the Eagles. 

Patriots’ place kicker Stephen Gostkowski, who made two of his three field goals on the night missed a 26-yarder with 14:18 left in the second quarter that kept the count 9-3 in favor of the Eagles. 

Amendola’s pass on a trick play to Tom Brady on 3^rd down and 5 at the Eagles’ 55 was dropped. That led to Eagles touchdown drive that was capped by Blount on a 21-yard run that made the score 15-3. 

“Yeah, Danny made a good throw, just didn’t make the play. It was where to be made, and I missed the play,” Brady, who became the first quarterback ever to lose a game with 500-plus passing yards, three-plus touchdown passes, and no interceptions said in his presser after the game.

After an Patriots interception, Brady marched his squad down the field on a seven-play, 90-yard scoring drive capped by a 26-yard run by White that made the score 15-12, but Gostkowski’s point after attempt was no good. 

The Eagles came back with a seven-play drive of their own of 90 yards that concluded with a one-yard touchdown pass from former quarterback, now tight end Trey Burton to Foles on 4^th and 1 from the Patriots one that put the Eagles up 22-12. After the win, Foles when asked about that play in the presser, it was called “Philly Special.”  

The Pats would not be deterred as they opened the second half with an eight-play, 75-yard drive, punctuated by a five-yard score by Gronkowski that cut the deficit to 22-19. 

The Eagles answered again with an 11-play 90 drive that Clement capped with a one-handed 22-yard touchdown reception, which was made official upon review that gave the Eagles a 29-19 edge. 

The Pats answered again with seven plays later when Brady hit Hogan for a 26-yard scoring catch, and the deficit was once again cut to three 29-26. 

After a 42-yard field goal by Eagles rookie place kicker Jake Elliott, Brady and the Pats captured their first lead of the day 33-32 on Gronkowski’s second score of the half, a four-yard touchdown in the left part of the end zone on 2^nd and Goal, that put a bow on a 10-play, 75-yard drive.   

The question in that moment then was, would the Eagles fold here or could they continue to match the Patriots scoring drive, for scoring drive? 

Foles mounted a 14-play 75-yard scoring drive that was capped by an 11-yard score by Ertz, that was confirmed upon video review. That play was able to happen because of a fourth down catch earlier by Ertz on 4^th and 1 from the Eagles 45 that kept the drive alive. 

“I had a slant backside. They had been doubling me anytime we were in the Red Zone, a lot of times on third down, and when we motioned out the [running] back to the right, his man kind of left, and there was no more double team, and Nick did a fantastic job just throwing me open like he does like he does each and every time we’re in that situation, and man we’re World Champions,” Ertz said about the game-winning drive to NBC Sports Network’s Tappen.

He also said about the wait to see if it was a touchdown, “If they would have overturned that, I don’t know what would have happened in the city of Philadelphia. I’m just so proud of the city. They earned it, no doubt about it. We wouldn’t be here without them. We love playing in Philadelphia. First Super Bowl champs in Philadelphia history. They deserve it.”  

Two plays later, Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham made the biggest defensive play of the game when he sacked and stripped the ball with 2:09 left from Brady on 2^nd and 2 from the Pats 33-yard line, that was recovered by Derek Barnett for the Patriots first, and only turnover of the game. The Eagles were able to get a 46-yard field goal four plays later by Elliott that gave them a 41-33 advantage. 

“I knew I was getting a one-one-one with the [offensive] guard, and I’ve been bulling him all game, and I faked like I was going to bull him, and I snatched him and next thing you know Tom Brady’s arm was right there, and I’m just happy that I just swiped and then connected,” Graham, who had his wife and daughter while being interviewed by Tappen said about his sack and forced fumble with 2:16 left in the fourth. “I’m just happy we got off the field on that one, and we won the game.”  

Even with that, the Patriots still gave themselves one last chance, but Brady’s hail marry throw on 2^nd and 10 from their own 49-yard line, very similar to Super Bowl XLVI against the New York Giants fell short like that one did, and the Eagles finally exhaled winning the game and accomplished the unthinkable. 

“I was hoping it was incomplete,” Pederson said about the Pats’ last gasp. “I just wanted it to be on the ground, and I wanted to see that clock go double zero. 

Coming into the game, it was the Patriots looking to add to their legacy, while the Eagles were trying to create one of their own. 

They not only made their own history, they also closed the mouths of every doubter outside the Eastern Pennsylvania area. 

Foles, who became the first player in NFL history to throw and catch a touchdown in the Super Bowl became the third Super Bowl signal caller to lead his team to victory on Super Sunday after having three or fewer starts in the regular season. He joined Super Bowl XXII MVP Doug Williams of the 1987 Washington Redskins, and Jeff Hostetler of the 1990 Giants, who led them to victory 20-19 over the Buffalo Bills.   

Two years prior with the St. Louis Rams looked nothing like a guy who could go scoring drive for scoring drive with the greatest winning quarterback ever. At one point in the last three years, Foles thought about quitting football all together. 

When he had to replace MVP candidate Carson Wentz who was lost to a torn ACL in their 43-35 win at the eventual NFC champion Rams in Week 14 on Dec. 10, 2017, there were serious doubts that the Eagles were going to have any success in the playoffs at all. 

What Foles was able to accomplish shows the value of coaching, having players around him, and the poise to go out on the field. The same poise he had in 2013 with the Eagles, where he had 27 touchdowns, and just two interceptions. 

Foles, who was the MVP of the Pro Bowl that season was at his best, which he was in the 38-7 victory in NFC Championship Game versus the Minnesota Vikings, and he was that on Sunday night, earning game MVP honors, and walking back to the locker room with several reporters around him interviewing him. 

“He’s been incredible,” Ertz said to Tappen. “When Carson went down, I mean obviously everybody was bumped. But Carson is going to be in a lot of these games for a long time, and Nick is the only person we wanted in that situation when Carson went down, and he’s an amazing person. An amazing quarterback, and this team is so resilient. We lost everyone. All-Pro, Hall of Fame left tackle [Jason Peters], obviously our running back in Darren [Sproles], and its been incredible this whole season.” 

The Eagles not only became the first NFC team to win a Super Bowl since the 2013 Seattle Seahawks won 43-8 versus Denver Broncos in XLVIII on Feb. 2, 2014, they became the fourth team in the Super Bowl era to win the Vince Lombardi Trophy after having a losing record the season before. 

The Eagles, who went 7-9 for the second consecutive season in 2016, joined the 1981 San Francisco 49ers, the 1999 Los Angeles Rams, who were in St. Louis at the time, the 2001 Patriots and the 2001 Patriots. 

Coach Pederson, who became the eighth head coach to win a Super Bowl within his first two seasons was aggressive with his play calling the whole game, and that made a major difference.

“I got the best players in the world,” Pederson, who nine years ago was coaching high school football said to Patrick. “It’s a resilient group. I love this coaching staff, Mr. Lurie the owner, and not only do we have the best fans in the world, we now have the best team in world.”

On his play calling in Super Bowl LII, Pederson said, “We just wanted to stay aggressive. We mixed in some of the RPO’s [run-pass options]. The Patriots did a great job of nullifying some of that, but my mentality coming into the game was I’m going to stay aggressive with Nick and let him use his playmakers to make plays.”

What also made a difference is the closeness of the Eagles. This is a team unlike any other in recent memory. A team full of faith-based individuals who have strong Christian values, which includes playing for, and respecting one another from the coaching staff, the front office, and the players themselves. 

One of the first things Pederson said when being interviewed during the trophy presentation is that he wanted to thank his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for the opportunity he and his team had to be in the Super Bowl. That feeling was felt even more so with the running backs, who are coached by former Eagle running back Duce Staley. 

“The environment in our room, created by Duce is bar none,” Ajayi said to Burmeister, Dungy, and Harrison. “The competitive nature that we have in there. How we support each other. How we love one another as brothers. How we push each other. How we embrace, and celebrate with each other is something special, and it’s something we’ll never forget. We’re brothers for life.” 

“We had a sit down before this game yesterday, and everybody got to speak on what they felt about this game, and what they felt leading up to it, and it was was special. And after that conversation that we had, it doesn’t surprise me how we performed tonight…Everyone in our committee showcased their abilities tonight.”

What also made the difference was the fact that for 60 minutes on both sides of the ball, the Eagles took it to the Patriots and never wavered. They were aggressive the entire game on offense, and they continued to get after Brady with their defensive line. 

Even though the secondary gave up a lot of yards, and a couple of touchdown passes, led by safety Malcolm Jenkins, the Eagles were able to keep the Pats at bay. 

That defense made a major play early in the second quarter when out speed threat Brandin Cooks was knocked out of the game late in the second quarter by a legal hit by Jenkins.

Jim Schwartz’s group had their moment late as mentioned with the strip sack by Graham that led to a field goal that gave the Eagles an eight-point lead. 

“We knew we had to play 60 minutes. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but we knew it was going to be worth it,” Graham, who has a big-time contract extension coming said to Tappen. “I’m so happy right now, because to bring that trophy back to Philadelphia, and we about to have this party on Broad Street baby. E-A-G-L-E-S!!!” 

His teammate Chris Long, who along with Blount won a Super Bowl with the Pats a season ago concurred with those thoughts by saying to NBC Sports Networks’ Randy Moss after the game, “We got the most amazing team. We overcame so much. A lot of people are going to act like they believed in us know. I don’t think people believed in us all night, even when we had the lead.” “God is good man. We’re so blessed. We didn’t do it along. I’m so appreciative.”

“All year we’ve won games in different ways, and the offense bailed us out in the second half, and at the end of the day, Tom Brady is the greatest for a reason. He was slicing us up, but eventually, he even had to hold the ball a little bit, and take some shots on the last two drives, and that’s when we got to him.” 

For the Patriots, they fell to 5-3 in Super Bowls in the Brady/Belichick era, and are 5-5 all-time in Super Bowls, joining the Broncos as the only two teams to lose five Super Bowls. 

Belichick joined Hall of Famers Bud Grant, Don Shula, Tom Landry and Marv Levy, and Dan Reeves as the six NFL head coaches to loss three Super Bowls or more.   

“There all pretty disappointing,” Brady, said about losing his third Super Bowl in eight tries. “I mean losing sucks, but you show up and try to win, and sometimes you lose. That’s the way it goes."

“If you’re not in the game, you don’t have a chance to win. I mean, if you want to be world champs, you got to play in this game. We’ve played in eight of him, and they were all good games, but today we had our opportunities. Never really got control of the game. Never really played on our terms, and just didn’t make enough plays when we needed to.”

On Sunday night, the Philadelphia Eagles became Super Bowl champions. They became champions by displaying a unique form of togetherness in the face of losing their MVP signal caller in Carson Wentz, veteran running back Darren Sproles, and future Hall of Famer offensive tackle in Jason Peters. They beat a gamed Atlanta Falcons team in the Divisional Round. Lambasted the NFC North champion Minnesota Vikings 38-7 in the NFC Championship Game two weeks ago. Then they stood up to one of the best teams of all-time, led by the Hall of Fame quarterback/head coach combination of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, and went from underdogs to Top Dogs of the NFL. Their quarterback went from wanting to retire, to backup, to Super Bowl MVP and their head coach went from a second-year head coach into a Super Bowl winning one.

Their reward, a big-time celebration that began on Sunday night in the streets of Philadelphia, PA and culminated on Thursday with a parade to remember. 

“For us there is no city that we’d rather win this Super Bowl for,” Jenkins said to Michael Strahan on ABC’s Good Morning America on Monday morning. “If we could, we’d be back in Philly already to join the celebration that’s already happening. We understand what this means to the city of Philadelphia, and we’re just proud to be a part of it. To be able to be the ones to bring this to that fan base that has been with us from the beginning of this. Just believing in us when nobody else did.” 

“This is special not only for us as players, but to be able to bring this back to the city of Philadelphia.”

Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 2/4/18 6:30 p.m. coverage of Super Bowl LII New England Patriots versus Philadelphia Eagles on NBC with Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth, Michele Tafoya, Dan Patrick, Tony Dungy, and Rodney Harrison; 2/4/18 10 p.m. Super Bowl Post Game Show on NBC Sports Network with Liam McHugh, Mike Florio, Chris Simms, Randy Moss, Kathryn Tappen, Paul Burmeister, Tony Dungy, and Rodney Harrison; 2/5/18 7 a.m. edition of ABC’s “Good Morning America,” with Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos, Michael Strahan, and Ginger Zee; www.espn.com/nfl/playbyplay/boxscore/matchup?gameid=40099173; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Philadelphia_Eagles_season; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Super_Bowl_champions; and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Bowl_XXXIX.